ICE arrests hundreds of immigrants in 'sanctuary cities'

No arrests were made of people in jails; all were made "in the community", she said.

"Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor detainers or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and creating a magnet for illegal immigration", said ICE Acting Director Tom Homan in a written statement.

As a result, ICE dedicated more resources to "these communities" for the arrests, he wrote.

During the operation this week, Denver was among the cities that saw the highest number of arrests. An additional 18 people were known gang members. After he was arrested, agents found a loaded handgun in his pocket.

ICE said it targeted immigrants with criminal convictions, and 317 of the people arrested had prior convictions, according to the agency.

Changes in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protocol has prompted the Teton County, Wyoming Sheriff's Department and Jackson Police Department to call a special public meeting.

Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, an anti-illegal immigration group based in Claremont, said ICE was simply enforcing federal immigration laws as written. "Non-cooperation policies severely undermine that effort at the expense of public safety". The preliminary injunction applied to cities nationwide.

The "sanctuary city" term dates back to the 1980s, when Berkeley and a few other municipalities declared themselves as such to accept migrants from Central America.

But local authorities in liberal areas across the country refused to allow them access and introduced restrictions preventing police fully cooperating with ICE agents. ICEarrested 41,318 immigrants, a rate of more than 400 each day, compared with 30,028 over roughly the same period in 2016. As the SF Chronicle reports, 181 of those arrested had no prior criminal conviction, and 27 of them were arrested in San Francisco and Santa Clara County. The largest category is driving under the influence (86).